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Wild Felid Range Shift Due to Climatic Constraints in the Americas: a Bottleneck Explanation for Extinct Felids?

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Abstract

Theoretical and empirical evidence suggests that the ecological niche of species tends to be conservative over evolutionary time in many taxonomic groups, thus representing long-term stable constraints on species geographic distributions. Using an ecological niche modeling approach, we assessed the impact of climatic change on wild felid species potential range shifts over the last 130 K years in the Americas and the potential of such shifts as an extinction driver. We found a significant range shift for most species (both living and extinct) across their distributions driven by large-scale environmental changes. Proportionally, the most drastic range increase for all species occurred in the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM: 18 K years)–Current transition, while for the Last Inter-Glacial (LIG: 130 K years)–LGM transition an important range reduction occurred, which was larger for extinct North American species. In conclusion, the reduction of climatically suitable areas for many species in the transition LIG–LGM may have produced population reductions, which, in turn, may have played an important role in species’ extinction throughout the continent.

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Acknowledgments

This paper constitutes a partial fulfillment of the Graduate Doctoral Degree program in Biological Sciences of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) of the first author. A. Arias-Alzate acknowledges the Posgrado en Ciencias Biológicas, the Instituto de Biología-UNAM and the scholarship and financial support provided by the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología of México (CONACyT) (Scholarship 280993). We thank R. Medellín, L. Viquez-R, and H. Zarza for permanent support throughout the research and for insightful comments on the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Biología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Circuito exterior s/n, Ciudad Universitaria, Coyoacán, CP 04510, Mexico City, Mexico

    Andrés Arias-Alzate & Enrique Martínez-Meyer

  2. Grupo de Mastozoología Universidad de Antioquia, Calle 67 Número 53-108, Medellín, Colombia

    Andrés Arias-Alzate

  3. Instituto de Ecología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Circuito exterior s/n, Ciudad Universitaria, Coyoacán, CP 04510, Mexico City, Mexico

    José F. González-Maya

  4. Proyecto de Conservación de Aguas y Tierras, ProCAT Colombia/Internacional, Carrera 13 No. 96-82 Oficina 205, Bogotá, Colombia

    José F. González-Maya

  5. Laboratorio de Arqueozoología “Ticul Álvarez Solórzano”, Subdirección de Laboratorios y Apoyo Académico, Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Moneda # 16, Col. Centro, 06006, Mexico City, Mexico

    Joaquín Arroyo-Cabrales

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  1. Andrés Arias-Alzate
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Arias-Alzate, A., González-Maya, J.F., Arroyo-Cabrales, J. et al. Wild Felid Range Shift Due to Climatic Constraints in the Americas: a Bottleneck Explanation for Extinct Felids?. J Mammal Evol 24, 427–438 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10914-016-9350-0

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